A ferry or boat voyage is required to get to Freetown from Lungi International Airport, which is now undergoing a single terminal enlargement at a staggering cost of $270 million (20 years Turkish Summah Company debt financing).

This is laborious and detrimental to tourism and investment, according to the Earnest Bai Koroma-led government, which departed office in April 2018. Beijing would have given the Mamamah International Airport project a $30 million grant to lessen the impact of the interest rate over the project’s lifecycle, which is a significant boost in such a capital-intensive construction project.

The state-backed China Railway Seventh Group was building the Mamamah International Airport, which got under way in March 2018, with help from China Exim Bank.

The project, which was scheduled to be finished in 2022, involved creating a new city and an economic zone close to the airport, among other things, to improve Sierra Leone’s investment climate and competitiveness as the nation works to become a Middle Income state by 2035. This was meant to go a long way toward reducing the endemic high unemployment rate throughout the entire nation.

When the Paopa (New direction) government took power in 2018, the rumours of Mamama project materializing faded each day until we stopped hearing it way back.

With dismay over the decision of President Bio to extend the Freetown International Airport leaving the opportunity to have a new and standard Airport plus a new city at similar cost of the Lungi airport extension project, Aiah Thomas on a Facebook post expressed his disappointment to the Paopa government.

Photos of the extended airport have been circling the web and according to what they depicted, it is clear that the airport is almost ready for completion. These photos have called for celebrations by Sierra Leoneans who are happy with the decision of Paopa government. On this note, Aizah Thomas has blasted the government on a his Facebook post.

“There’s nothing to celebrate about the >$250 million extension of Lungi airport coz u still have to pay to cross over to Freetown + high interest loans to repay. Same amount could’ve built Mamama, created a new city & eased F/town congestion!” He blasted.

This post by Aiah Thomas was reacted by many Sierra Leoneans who thought alike to Thomas and have pondered on this aforementioned subject for a long time now waiting to be triggered to explode.

“We have been telling them that Mamama was not just an Airport 🛫 project. The Road was already completed to ensure seamless travel from the airport to ur preferred distinction. Mamama was a new city but oooooya bad politics nor allow value for money instead we opted for something that will add no value to our under develop country” Theophilus Bangura expressed his view to the Lungi – Mamama saga.

“Big ego and politics of hate, caused them to scrap the Mamama project. And the Lungi airport extension is a lease agreement, the Turkish company doing the extension project will be the one running it for several decades.” One Foday Kamara revealed that this could be another reason to Paopa government stubbornness to extend the Lungi airport (Freetown International Airport).